virtualize application/x-www-form-urlencoded REST service

[Nagasree Devarakonda]

Hi Team,

I am trying to virtualize "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" REST service using request and response pair and my request data is 

beneficiary.given:exact=Matt&beneficiary.family:exact=Clayhews&beneficiary.birthdate=1976-08-11&service-start-date=2020-01-01&service-end-date=2020-12-31

if i add only REST data protocol, the request data arguments are not visible. 
What are the protocol i need to add, other than REST data protocol ? 

Attached related screenshots. please suggest me on this.

[Karl Miller]

Nagasree,
The easiest way to do this is change your RR Pair Request file. Add a "?" to the end of your path and then move your request data after the "?". 
This is how DevTest would see it if you did a recording because : "For application/x-www-form-urlencoded, the body of the HTTP message sent to the server is essentially one giant query string -- name/value pairs are separated by the ampersand (&), and names are separated from values by the equals symbol (=). "

Also don't forget to add "HTTP/1.1" at the end of the first line in a RR Pair Request.

New RR Pair Request 

POST /R4/Coverage/_search?beneficiary.given:exact=Matt&beneficiary.family:exact=Clayhews&beneficiary.birthdate=1976-08-11&service-start-date=2020-01-01&service-end-date=2020-12-31 HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded

[Nagasree Devarakonda]

Hi Karl,

With the help of your inputs, I could see the request data arguments after creating virtual service in workstation. Ideally, for POST call, we need to have below details

recorded_raw_request: beneficiary.given:exact=Jane&beneficiary.family:exact=DOE&beneficiary.birthdate=1966-08-10
HTTP-URI: /R4/Coverage/_search

Since we have added "?" to the end URI and then moved request data after the "?", i am seeing below changes for recorded_raw_request and HTTP-URI
recorded_raw_request: empty
HTTP-URI: /R4/Coverage/_search?beneficiary.given:exact=Jane&beneficiary.family:exact=DOE&beneficiary.birthdate=1966-08-10

while testing the virtual service in ITR mode, this scenario is working only if we pass request data in the URI. but i need to pass request data in request body since the method i am using is POST call.

Is there any way to send data in request body? if i pass request data in request body, virtual service is not working.
Attaching necessary screenshots, please provide your inputs

[Karl Miller]

Nagasree,

Normally you could add the "Delimited Text Data Protocol" DPH (see DelimitedTextDataProtocol.JPG) and it would parse out the request, however 2 of your arguments beneficiary.given:exact and beneficiary.family:exact cause a SAX parser error due to having a ":" in the argument name. "org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/59151503/org-xml-sax-saxparseexception-the-prefix-for-element-is-not-bound 

So I suggest adding a Scriptable Data Protocol DPH with the below Code to parse the body content to arguments. When you build from RR pairs I recommend adding a Request Data Manager DPH so you can see what you will get. When Trying this out I had the REST DPH then Request Data Manager DPH,  then Scriptable Data Protocol DPH, then Request Data Manager DPH. That way I could see the result of the Scriptable Data Protocol DPH and go make changes if needed. (see VS-Develop-DPH.JPG) 

code for Scriptable Data Protocol DPH:
%beanshell%

// You can use %beanshell%, %groovy% or %javascript% or some other installed JSR-223 scripting language
// This example is for beanshell

import com.itko.util.ParameterList;
import com.itko.util.Parameter;
import java.lang.Object;
import java.net.URLDecoder;

ParameterList args = lisa_vse_request.getArguments();

ParameterList metadata = lisa_vse_request.getMetaData();
// Looking up parameters
if (metadata.containsKey("Content-Type")) {
//int metSize = metadata.size();
String theContentType = metadata.getParameterValue("Content-Type");
if (theContentType.contains("application/x-www-form-urlencoded")) {
// Manipulate request body text
String theBody = lisa_vse_request.getBodyText();
String[] pairs = theBody.split("&");
for (String pair : pairs) {
int idx = pair.indexOf("=");
args.addParameter(new Parameter(URLDecoder.decode(pair.substring(0, idx), "UTF-8"), URLDecoder.decode(pair.substring(idx + 1), "UTF-8")));
}
lisa_vse_request.setArguments(args);
// end if (theContentType=="application/x-www-form-urlencoded")
}
}

[Nagasree Devarakonda]

Thanks for the update. i will create virtual service as per your suggestion.